RAMALLAH, October 29, 2025 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said on Wednesday that the Israeli Army Minister’s decision to continue banning International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) teams from visiting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails under the pretext of “security concerns” provides further cover for prison authorities to intensify crimes against detainees, including slow and deliberate killing, while concealing evidence of abuse.
PPS stressed that the decision comes at a time of growing demands to allow the ICRC to resume visits that have been halted since the start of the war, amid increasing revelations of unprecedented violations committed against Palestinian detainees, especially following the most recent prisoner exchange.
In a statement, PPS explained that the decision was issued only hours before a scheduled Israeli Supreme Court hearing on a petition filed to restore ICRC visits. The petition has been repeatedly postponed since the war began, as Israeli authorities insist on denying visits while Israeli captives remain in Gaza.
The organization said that the Supreme Court and the wider Israeli judicial system have actively enabled the colonial regime’s genocidal policies, including those carried out inside prisons, through torture, starvation, denial of medical care, sexual assaults, and degrading detention conditions.
It added that dozens of detainees have been tortured to death or executed in the aftermath of the war, making this the deadliest period in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement.
PPS also noted that the decision follows recent preliminary approvals by Knesset committees of legislation that would allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners and the establishment of special courts lacking basic legal guarantees to prosecute detainees from Gaza.
Testimonies from released prisoners, whether those who completed their sentences or those freed in the latest ceasefire agreement, reveal an unprecedented level of brutality during arrest and inside detention facilities since the start of the assault on Gaza.
PPS said the bodies of recently released victims showed clear signs of torture and systematic field executions against Gaza detainees, calling for an urgent and independent international investigation into these crimes.
PPS, together with specialized human rights groups, reaffirmed that what is happening inside Israeli prisons is a continuation of the genocidal war and that the declared figures of detainees who have been killed represent only a fraction of the ongoing crimes being committed inside prisons and detention camps.
M.N
